shoe box

Yesterday afternoon I lured Athen outside with sidewalk chalk.
He made me draw things like an owl, a spiderweb and the moon.
Whenever I would ask him to draw something he would say "I can't."
I insisted he could, so he "drew" a camera. "Is it good?" he asked.
"It's beautiful." I said looking down at his light blue scribble.

Then I went inside to do some emailing at the computer.
Athen came in and started pulling my fingers away from the keyboard.
"Mom, come on, I see a bug, I see a spider!" he said enthusiastically.
Holding onto my fingers he took me over to a small shoe box outside.

He lifted the lid and said "You see?"

There it was. The tiniest baby spider. Smaller than the head of a pin.
Beginning to make a tiny web in the corner of Athen's shoe box. I said
"Oh, wow!" thinking how great it was that he was so observant.
He said "It's beautiful?" Touched, I replied "yes, it is."
He said "Yeah, it's beautiful."



Originally written for: "Confessions of a Young Mother" 4.28.08